Band: Nirvana
Album: In Utero
Released: 21 September 1993
Favourite Track: All Apologies
Favourite Lyric: “I’m not like them but I can pretend”
Released just a week after August and Everything After, but worlds apart in terms of sound, my second most influential album (chronologically) is the final studio offering from Nirvana.
Like much of the music that has influenced me, I have written a bit about Nirvana on my blog before. This was in the context of me feeling old about how long ago it was that Kurt Cobain died (now 26 years ago this month – he’s almost been dead longer than he was alive).
The first band that I would have classed as my favourite band was Guns N’ Roses. Nirvana were the band that took that honour from them and it wasn’t even close.
Whilst Nevermind was the album that helped them to break the big time, In Utero struck me as the album that they had actually wanted to make. It is raw, punkier, has more feeling and is less produced.
The influence that Nirvana had on me went beyond music. At I mentioned last week, I gave myself a Kurt Cobain makeover in my youth. I also play guitar left handed so I’m sure we basically looked like twins. I also read books that were mentioned by the band, including Perfume by Patrick Suskind on which the track Senseless Apprentice from this album was based.
I don’t remember being into them before Kurt died, so I never really felt a sense of loss that they weren’t around. Their restricted back catalogue almost made what they had produced even more special, and this album is I think the most special of them all.